Responsys expands marketing reach with acquisition of Smith-Harmon

With its agreement to buy Smith-Harmon, a provider of digital marketing services, e-mail and cross-channel marketing services firm Responsys will expand offerings in areas such as video-embedded e-mail and mobile marketing, says CEO Dan Springer.

With its agreement to buy Smith-Harmon, a provider of digital marketing services, e-mail and cross-channel marketing services firm Responsys plans to expand offerings in areas such as video-embedded e-mail and mobile marketing, says Responsys CEO Dan Springer. Terms of the acquisition agreement, which is based on a cash and stock transaction, were not disclosed.

Marketers using integrated technology from Responsys and Smith-Harmon will, for example, be able to send text messages or video-embedded e-mails designed to bring customers to a web site landing page with an online form for entering information on specific personal shopping interests. Filling out the brief form-with details of a particular product model, for instance-would take the shopper to the product page that best meets their needs.

At the same time, information gathered in that landing page form will help the online retailer build a profile of the shopper to use in future marketing campaigns. “We’ll help marketers get more relevant behavioral targeting, and figure out how to send messages that are more like true one-to-one marketing,” Springer says.

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He adds that Smith-Harmon brings a sophisticated means of embedding high-resolution videos directly in e-mail for faster viewing. The more common means of putting video in e-mail messages relies on putting an image of a video in an e-mail that links back to a web page where the video actually resides, Springer says.

Springer notes that all 19 people working at Smith-Harmon will join the expanded company, bringing the total workforce to more than 300.

Responsys, which recently released the Responsys Interactive Suite for integrated e-mail and cross-channel marketing, including mobile and social media marketing, will host its comprehensive marketing applications for clients, says Springer.